BBC Apology - 3. Emails linked to Summary
Tuesday, 30 December 2008 15:111 |
From: Tom Williams Dear Dorothy, Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this discussion programme. It should all be able to be done over the phone or at your house. With best wishes,
From: Charlotte King-Manchester Dear Tom Williams, I'm writing to ask whether Dorothy Rowe might be able to take part in a programme I'm setting up for BBC Radio Two. It's an hour-long documentary for Faith in the World Week - a week of special programmes exploring religious belief around the world, made by the BBC's Religion and Ethics department. This documentary will ask where does religious faith come from and, in an age when secular voices tell us that scientific reason has replaced religion, why do so many of us still want to believe in God and search for faith? It'll be a fairly touchy-feely documentary with lots of music, as well as interviews with celebrities, experts (both those who support and object to religious belief) and ordinary people with interesting stories to tell about how and why God came into their lives. I'd really like to record a short interview with If you think we might be able to arrange an interview with Dorothy I'd be keen to have a chat with her on the phone as early as possible just to go through what she'd most want to say. I was hoping there might be a time over the next week or two when she'd be in the I do hope to hear from you soon. All the best, Charlotte King Charlotte King |
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From: Dear Charlotte, Last night I stayed at the splendid Ibis Hotel in Charles St, However, I'm now back in Highbury, I'll be out tomorrow from 12.30 but I'll be here over the weekend and next week. You can phone me on 020 xxxxxxxx Your programme sounds very interesting - answering the question which Richard Dawkins refused to ask. All the best, Dorothy |
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3 | September 18: DR to Broadcasting House for interview by John McCarthy, recorded by Charlotte K-M. | |
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From: Charlotte King-Manchester Hi Dorothy, Thank you so much for your time on Thursday. I thought the interview we recorded was excellent. John's email address is xxxxxxxxxxx. I'm glad you two got on! I'm sure we should be able to make you a copy of the recording but we're all very much up against it this week so please bear with us if it takes us a week or two. The programme will be broadcast sometime in the week beginning Monday October 20th but I'm afraid I don't have the date yet. Thanks very much and best wishes, |
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From: Dear Charlotte, I've now written to John. I was so delighted to meet him. I followed the hostages in the I'll look forward to getting a copy of our conversation in due course. Please do let me know when the documentary will be broadcast. Will it become a podcast? If it is, I'll put a link to it from my website. All best wishes, Dorothy |
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From: From: Dawn Bryan Hi Tom We recorded and interview with Dorothy a couple of weeks ago for a programme called What Do You Believe with John McCarthy on BBC Radio 2. Having just listened through to it, there are some areas I'd like to cover again with Dorothy..I know its short notice but can I get her in to a studio tomorrow at some point..or later today? many thanks Dawn Dawn |
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From: Dorothy Rowe Dear Dawn, Further to my phone message, obviously I can't manage anything now today. Tomorrow I have an interview and a photo shoot for the Telegraph but if you could provide a taxi both ways I could go to Broadcasting House between 4 and 5pm. Wednesday I have a discussion about Women's Hour, and then to Beverley, back on Thursday. I'll be at BH early Friday to talk to Women's Hour. My phone number is 020 xxxxxxxxxx Dorothy |
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8 | From: Dawn Bryan Sent: 06 October 2008 17:01 To: Subject: RE: your email Great..Ill get something booked for 4 tomorrow then. Thanks so much..and sorry for the hassle! Dawn |
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From: Kirsty Wither Dear Dorothy, I have booked you into Studio GB in Western House tomorrow (Just next to Broadcasting House) If you go to reception they will show you the way to the studio. The studio is booked between 16.00-16.30, so I have booked your taxi to pick you up at 15.15pm from xx (30mins to get to studio + 15 mins leeway time in case it is late - fingers crossed it won't be). The taxi details are as below: The return taxi is booked for 16.30 from Western House back to your home address. If you have finished earlier and need the booking to come before the time then do feel free to give them a call and amend the time. I hope this all fits in with your plans, do let me know if you need anything amending. Best wishes, Kirsty Kirsty Wither |
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10 | October 7: DR to BBC Weston House to talk down the line to Dawn Bryan. | |
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To: 'Dawn Bryan' Dear Dawn, I forgot to ask you if you had a broadcast date? Will it be available as a podcast? My car was waiting at the door and I was home very quickly. Dorothy |
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Sent: 17 October 2008 10:37 Will it be a podcast? D |
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From: Charlotte King-Manchester Hi Dorothy, Yes I've just found out. It's next Tuesday - October 21st - at 10.30pm on BBC Radio Two. Many thanks - and sorry we haven't had this All the best, Charlotte From: Many thanks, Dorothy From: Charlotte King-Manchester It won't be downloadable as a podcast but it will be available on 'listen again' from the Radio Two website for a week after the broadcast. Charlotte |
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From:
Sent: 23 October 2008 16:37 To: 'John McCarthy' Subject: RE: tomorrow Dear John, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Alas, I can't manage either the 6th or the 14th. On the 6th I'll be on my way to Southwold for Ways with Words, and on the 14th I'm having lunch with my agent, Between them, Dawn, Charlotte and Kirsty arranged for me to be sent an unedited copy of our conversation. This arrived yesterday and I've been able to listen to it again. I wanted to hear again your description of the experience of feeling that you are being annihilated as a person when you feel that you are going to disappear like a wisp of smoke in the wind. I've heard many people describe this experience, but they have been people who tried to hold themselves together by creating a protective delusion. You and I spoke of how some people in this situation tell themselves that they are, in some way, the most powerful person in the universe. Doing this, they earn the psychiatric diagnosis of psychosis or schizophrenia. The much more common delusion is that of telling yourself that you are responsible for the disaster that has befallen you. You say to yourself, 'If I had been a really good person this would not have happened to me.' You turn again yourself and hate yourself, and thus create the prison of depression. I guess there were periods when you did tell yourself this, and so you had periods of depression, but you were not seduced by the protection the prison of depression gives from the chaos all around you. Many people are thus seduced, and they remain depressed, even for the rest of their life. You'll find in most of my books, but particularly Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison and Beyond Fear, that I have quoted what depressed or psychotic people have told me of their experience of annihilation. Everyone has this experience at least once in their life and most people survive without becoming psychotic or depressed, but most people doesn't want to talk about it because they don't want to be reminded of that fear. So it was an important experience for me to hear you describe how it's possible to deal with that fear without resorting to delusion. In the chaos of seeming to fall apart you looked for a still point in that chaos to hold on to. You didn't have to create a fantasy of some still point that can be grabbed and hung on to. You thought of your family. They were real, not just in their existence but in their love and concern for you. (A number of my long-term, deeply disturbed clients have told me that it wasn't my words of wisdom that helped them to change but that I had become a still, solid object that was always there, and around which they could successfully rebuild themselves.) Just as you felt the joy and calm of knowing that you could survive the means of doing so came to you. Everything we do is based, at least in part, on our need to hold our sense of being a person together. Whatever topic I decide to write about - mental disorder, money, siblings, religion and so on - I begin the book with an account of how the sense of being a person comes about and how our greatest fear is that of being annihilated. I intended to ask you whether I could quote what you had told me in the book I'm working on now called Why We Lie. We lie in order to try to hold ourselves together. Why do you tell white lies? So that you don't cause another person distress. Why is it important to you not to cause another person distress? Because the person won't like you. Why is it important to you to be liked? You know that answer to that. I don't need to put you in the book as an example of a liar - I'm spoiled for choice where that's concerned, but to set out how wonderful and extraordinary we all are, if we had but the sense to see it. What I'm writing about is solidly based on the research results obtained by neuroscientists, matters which I try to describe as straightforwardly as possible. Whenever I write about what a specific person has told me I always send what written to that person long before the MS goes to the publisher. It will be at least a year before I finish writing Why We Lie because the political scene has changed so much in the last few weeks. All the best, Dorothy |
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15 | October 21: Programme 'What I Believe?' broadcast. | |
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From: Dear David Barber, I have been advised to write to you about my being interviewed for the Radio 2 programme What Do You Believe? which was broadcast at 10.30pm on 21.10.08. Although I was interviewed at considerable length for this programme, I appeared very briefly in the broadcast programme, and in the second of my appearances my words had been edited so as to appear that I held views which are the opposite of my actual views. I am a psychologist who is well known for my work on depression. My latest book What Should I Believe?, was published by Routledge on October 10. I have attached a press release about the book here. I wrote the book, first, as an answer to Richard Dawkins frequent rhetorical question, 'Why do people believe such ridiculous things?, and, second, to show how many people create great misery for themselves by choosing to hold beliefs which do not lead to courage and optimism but which lead them to denigrate themselves and to feel frightened and guilty. Such beliefs play a major part in many people's depression. On 10 September, 2008, Charlotte King-Manchester wrote to my literary agent, Dear I'm writing to ask whether This documentary will ask where does religious faith come from and, in an age when secular voices tell us that scientific reason has replaced religion, why do so many of us still want to believe in God and search for faith? It'll be a fairly touchy-feely documentary with lots of music, as well as interviews with celebrities, experts (both those who support and object to religious belief) and ordinary people with interesting stories to tell about how and why God came into their lives. I'd really like to record a short interview with In the broadcast programme I appear, first, for 27 seconds, and second, for 67 seconds. In the first I am saying that I had no religious beliefs. In the second I am heard talking about how religious beliefs can give a structure to a person's life. Edited as it is, it sounds like I am giving unqualified praise to religious belief. There is no mention of what I talked to John about at length, that religious belief can cause immense misery. I often summarise this with, 'The Church keeps me in business.' After listening to this for the second time I was surprised at how distressed I was. I did my first interview for the BBC in 1971, when I was interviewed about twins on Radio Sheffield. The number of interviews I have done since then must run into three figures. This is the first time I have been edited to say something the contrary to what I actually said. My distress showed me what great trust I had placed in the BBC, not just in its treatment of me but in all its broadcasts. Now I have to entertain a doubt. Moreover, I feel used and abused by the BBC's Religion and Ethics Department. I would appreciate it if you would look into this matter and let me know what you find. Yours sincerely, |
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From: David Barber Can I suggest you put your complaint direct to the dept responsible for the programme's production. This is the BBC Religion and Ethics in |
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From: Dear Dorothy, I have read your complaint and regret very much that you feel distressed because of your participation in a programme made from this unit. As you suggest I shall look into this matter and, of course, let you know what I find.
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From: Dear I shall be leaving for three months in Dorothy |
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From: Dear We owe you an apology. I have looked into the matter you raised regarding the Radio 2 documentary 'What Do You Believe' . I have heard the programme and your contribution and have talked to the producer in detail about what was recorded and what was broadcast. I am very concerned to find that, as you say, the programme did not accurately reflect the view you expressed. I was not aware of this situation before it was broadcast but I know this producer and her work well. She is very experienced and I can only say that it is a very uncharacteristic error on her part. She, too, is very concerned that her work has fallen short of the high editorial standards that the religion and ethics department expects from its production teams. Please accept my apologies on behalf of the unit for the distress this has caused you. Yours, Executive Producer |
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From: Dear The apology you have given me is far from satisfactory. An apology for my distress is not an apology. It is a refusal to accept responsibility for the injury inflicted. The injury I have suffered is ongoing. I am not distressed. I am angry. Your producer, who I take to be Dawn Bryan, has broadcast what is, in effect, a lie about me. She has chosen to make me sound as if I believe that religion is valuable because it gives structure to a person's life. She knew quite well that that was not what I was saying. Religion does give structure to many people's lives, but it can be the kind of structure that Nowadays, when something is broadcast, it does not disappear. It may disappear from the BBC website, but it goes into other websites, other recordings, and into the memories of those who heard it. In my everyday life I am constantly being told by people I have never met or have met only once that I had said such and such. I am quoted in other people's writings. What your unit has done is to put into the general domain something about me which is untrue. I do not want an apology. I want you to put on permanent record that what was broadcast was not what I said. If you are prepared to put on permanent record, say, a page on the BBC website which sets out how I have been misrepresented and what I actually said, and to which I can refer those people who have accepted your unit's lie as the truth about me, then, and only then, will I consider this matter closed. Yours sincerely, |
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From: Amanda Hancox Dear Thank you for your response to Yours sincerely Amanda Hancox |
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23 | From: Sent: 28 November 2008 14:35 To: Subject: RE: Radio 2 What Do You Believe? 21.10.08 Dear I am keen to ensure that we deal with your complaint to your satisfaction and I have had discussions with the Head of Religion and Ethics and our on-line team to discuss how we can do that. As this is our editorial responsibility we are going to take up your suggestion to create a page on the Religion & Ethics website which will contain an edited version of your interview with John McCarthy to ensure the extended text and meaning of the original comments are clear. We also discussed whether you would be interested in writing an article to accompany it which explained further your views on atheism and religion or perhaps combined with something on your professional field of psychology. Would you be interested in this option? It's our attempt to provide a context given that 'What Do You Believe' was a one-off programme which broadcast well over a month ago and is no longer available on BBC websites. We would then include a clear disclaimer at the bottom which clearly references the documentary by name and then proceeds along the lines of: "Please note that this programme included two extracts from an interview with psychologist and novelist I hope you will feel this is a comprehensive way of dealing with your substantive complaint and go some way to addressing the anger you speak of. I look forward to hearing from you. If you wish to discuss this please feel free to call me. Yours,
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24 | From: Sent: 30 November 2008 17:18 To: ' Subject: RE: Radio 2 What Do You Believe? 21.10.08 Dear That is an excellent suggestion. In the interview with John I talked about some of the immense misery that religious beliefs can cause people. As part of setting out the context for that interview, I'd like to write an article about how we operate as human beings. This is science, a part of science about which most people, including people who regard themselves as being well educated, don't understand. If you don't understand this, you are incapable of understanding yourself and other people. What we need to know is that the way our brains operate means that what determines our behaviour isn't what happens to us but how we interpret what happens to us. I state this is psychological terms, and neuroscientists say the same thing in their terms. Most religious people don't understand this, and many scientists don't understand either. The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the arch-militant atheist Richard Dawkins don't understand this. If they did understand it, they would be talking in terms of alternative interpretations of the nature of death and the purpose of life and the consequences of these interpretations, instead of talking in terms of what is, as neuroscience has shown, an impossibility, the possession of an absolute truth. My article would be no longer than 1200 words. I usually refer to myself as being a psychologist and writer. A link to my website would allow those who are interested to learn more about my work. Would you let me see the website page before it goes up, and to hear the abridged version of the interview. I leave for Best wishes, Dorothy |
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25 | December 8th: Page on the BBC Website goes live. |